6 ms·

Brian Acton put $100m into Signal and I thought that was the reason that they don’t need funding

aleph_minus_one 1y ago
I rather think the money for Signal comes (or originally came) from the CIA. Evidence: > Signal facing collapse after CIA cuts funding > https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/analysis/signal-facing-collapse-after-cia-cuts-funding https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/analysis/signal-faci...
- jajko 1y ago
  If they had good access, why cut the funding? To subvert the security product where they actually have backdoor?
  - guappa 1y ago
    [flagged]
    - immibis 1y ago
      It makes sense when viewed through the lens that he's a foreign agent.
      - immibis 1y ago
        Funny how a comment can go from +5 to -4 once the American time zone gets online.
    - ForHackernews 1y ago
      (if only HN had eye-roll reacts) Radio Free Europe was/is not a propaganda outlet any more than the BBC is a propaganda outlet (in fact, this is why Trump hates it). To an authoritarian, free press looks like propaganda. Showcasing what makes your society great is propaganda only inasmuch as it casts the failures of other models into sharper relief. Liberal democracy is not a propaganda trick, it's just better.
      - guappa 1y ago
        Have you ever listened to it? I have.
      - itishappy 1y ago
        Do you see many stories critical of US foreign policy?
      - amendegree 1y ago
        I mean… yes the BBC is very much a propaganda outlet as is every single modern media organization. People who claim their media isn’t propaganda have already been brainwashed.
        guappa 1y ago
        BBC right before the brexit vote was like: "now we listen to this well spoken university professor tell us why brexit will fix all our problems", and then, to offer balanced views: "we will listen to this random person who likes europe and we picked from a street 3 minutes ago so they don't have a nice coherent speech and will sound like they're stupid"
        ForHackernews 1y ago
        I'm sorry but this is such a midwit take. Your uber-skepticism of "every single modern media organization" does not make you a savvy free-thinker, it just makes you more likely to fall down some gibbering conspiratorial rabbit hole on youtube or tiktok. Yes, media entities have biases and viewpoints; no, that doesn't make them propaganda organs.
        LtWorf 1y ago
        Is it propaganda only when you disagree?
        christianqchung 1y ago
        "everything that isn't tiktok/podcasts is propaganda"
    - bojan 1y ago
      Radio Free Europe was for 10 years almost the only way to know what's really going on in my country. I'm forever grateful to them and it horrifies me that their mission ultimately has failed.
      - pphysch 1y ago
        "Russia Today was for 10 years almost the only way to know what's really going on in my country". I'm only being half-sarcastic. RT will cover factual issues about Western countries that the state-endorsed media won't. But they're still disinformation outlets that should be consumed with a massive grain of salt, just like RFE and RFA.
        bojan 1y ago
        That's a ridiculous take. Yes, Russian propaganda works best when they are based on a grain of truth, and it often is. However, it is just that - a propaganda machine serving a dictator.
        LtWorf 1y ago
        That's what Radio Free Europe is… serving foreign interests.
        pphysch 1y ago
        "Our noble warriors, their savage terrorists. Our objective media, their insidious propaganda." Blah blah.
- jonstewart 1y ago
  This is a pretty conspiratorial article… However, widely disseminating an app that supports secure e2e messaging can serve a positive purpose for the CIA in running its agents.
- conradev 1y ago
  The initial funding for Tor came from the Navy (where it was created) and the State Department (where it was helpful for Arab spring) Association with the CIA or In-Q-Tel is not necessarily a bad thing. They have unique requirements for operational security like many other Signal users? The CIA has access to zero-days. They will just use those for targeted attacks and are generally not in the business of mass surveillance? Whereas the FBI and NSA sorta are to achieve their respective mandates The State department has since walked back its love for international freedom of speech with the populist movement in Brazil. They’re active in suppressing speech there, just like they were in promoting it in the Middle East.
  - godelski 1y ago
    > funding for Tor came from the Navy Notably they want it more widely used because it's really not useful if the only people that connect to Tor are spies. Makes finding spies super easy ("X connected to Tor. Okay, let's go arrest X"). How do you prevent that? Doesn't take a genius to figure that out... Similarly, CIA/Navy/whatever doesn't want their tools to have zero-days. You might think "zero-days for me, but not for thee" but come on... we all know that doesn't work. If there's an exploit, the exploit works for anyone. You may have an edge in knowing where to look, but you're not going to maintain that edge for long. Worse, good luck finding out if someone else finds out. How do you prevent adversaries from exploiting your tools? Doesn't take a genius to figure that out... I really hate these conspiracies. Like come on. Yeah, we should be highly critical of US spy agencies and apply a lot of scrutiny. But not everything they touch results in a landmine. They aren't all powerful gods. And they're up against some serious adversaries like China, Russia, and yes, Israel, and the most important one of them all... themselves! Spooks are spooks. They don't trust their neighbors, they don't trust themselves. And if they were omniscient, surely they'd know the very first rule of security: if there's a backdoor, somebody will find it at the least conveniently possible time.
    - conradev 1y ago
      > I really hate these conspiracies. Like come on. The Washington Post: In a statement, WikiLeaks indicated that the initial stockpile it put online was part of a broader collection of nearly 9,000 files that would be posted over time describing code developed in secret by the CIA to steal data from a range of targets. WikiLeaks said it redacted lists of CIA surveillance targets, though it said they included targets and machines in Latin America, Europe and the United States. https://archive.ph/QgK0a#:~:text=In%20a%20statement,the%20United%20States. https://archive.ph/QgK0a#:~:text=In%20a%20statement,the%20Un... and: The experience of O.S.B. engineers bore some resemblance to the Apple TV+ drama “Severance,” https://archive.ph/K59TS#:~:text=The%20experience%20of%20O.S.B.%20engineers%20bore%20some%20resemblance%20to%20the%20Apple%20TV+%20drama%20“Severance%2C” https://archive.ph/K59TS#:~:text=The%20experience%20of%20O.S...

I rather think the money for Signal comes (or originally came) from the CIA. Evidence: > Signal facing collapse after CIA cuts funding > https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/analysis/signal-facing-collapse-after-cia-cuts-funding https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/analysis/signal-faci...

jajko 1y ago
If they had good access, why cut the funding? To subvert the security product where they actually have backdoor?
- guappa 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - immibis 1y ago
    It makes sense when viewed through the lens that he's a foreign agent.
    - immibis 1y ago
      Funny how a comment can go from +5 to -4 once the American time zone gets online.
  - ForHackernews 1y ago
    (if only HN had eye-roll reacts) Radio Free Europe was/is not a propaganda outlet any more than the BBC is a propaganda outlet (in fact, this is why Trump hates it). To an authoritarian, free press looks like propaganda. Showcasing what makes your society great is propaganda only inasmuch as it casts the failures of other models into sharper relief. Liberal democracy is not a propaganda trick, it's just better.
    - guappa 1y ago
      Have you ever listened to it? I have.
    - itishappy 1y ago
      Do you see many stories critical of US foreign policy?
    - amendegree 1y ago
      I mean… yes the BBC is very much a propaganda outlet as is every single modern media organization. People who claim their media isn’t propaganda have already been brainwashed.
      - guappa 1y ago
        BBC right before the brexit vote was like: "now we listen to this well spoken university professor tell us why brexit will fix all our problems", and then, to offer balanced views: "we will listen to this random person who likes europe and we picked from a street 3 minutes ago so they don't have a nice coherent speech and will sound like they're stupid"
      - ForHackernews 1y ago
        I'm sorry but this is such a midwit take. Your uber-skepticism of "every single modern media organization" does not make you a savvy free-thinker, it just makes you more likely to fall down some gibbering conspiratorial rabbit hole on youtube or tiktok. Yes, media entities have biases and viewpoints; no, that doesn't make them propaganda organs.
        LtWorf 1y ago
        Is it propaganda only when you disagree?
      - christianqchung 1y ago
        "everything that isn't tiktok/podcasts is propaganda"
  - bojan 1y ago
    Radio Free Europe was for 10 years almost the only way to know what's really going on in my country. I'm forever grateful to them and it horrifies me that their mission ultimately has failed.
    - pphysch 1y ago
      "Russia Today was for 10 years almost the only way to know what's really going on in my country". I'm only being half-sarcastic. RT will cover factual issues about Western countries that the state-endorsed media won't. But they're still disinformation outlets that should be consumed with a massive grain of salt, just like RFE and RFA.
      - bojan 1y ago
        That's a ridiculous take. Yes, Russian propaganda works best when they are based on a grain of truth, and it often is. However, it is just that - a propaganda machine serving a dictator.
        LtWorf 1y ago
        That's what Radio Free Europe is… serving foreign interests.
        pphysch 1y ago
        "Our noble warriors, their savage terrorists. Our objective media, their insidious propaganda." Blah blah.
jonstewart 1y ago
This is a pretty conspiratorial article… However, widely disseminating an app that supports secure e2e messaging can serve a positive purpose for the CIA in running its agents.
conradev 1y ago
The initial funding for Tor came from the Navy (where it was created) and the State Department (where it was helpful for Arab spring) Association with the CIA or In-Q-Tel is not necessarily a bad thing. They have unique requirements for operational security like many other Signal users? The CIA has access to zero-days. They will just use those for targeted attacks and are generally not in the business of mass surveillance? Whereas the FBI and NSA sorta are to achieve their respective mandates The State department has since walked back its love for international freedom of speech with the populist movement in Brazil. They’re active in suppressing speech there, just like they were in promoting it in the Middle East.
- godelski 1y ago
  > funding for Tor came from the Navy Notably they want it more widely used because it's really not useful if the only people that connect to Tor are spies. Makes finding spies super easy ("X connected to Tor. Okay, let's go arrest X"). How do you prevent that? Doesn't take a genius to figure that out... Similarly, CIA/Navy/whatever doesn't want their tools to have zero-days. You might think "zero-days for me, but not for thee" but come on... we all know that doesn't work. If there's an exploit, the exploit works for anyone. You may have an edge in knowing where to look, but you're not going to maintain that edge for long. Worse, good luck finding out if someone else finds out. How do you prevent adversaries from exploiting your tools? Doesn't take a genius to figure that out... I really hate these conspiracies. Like come on. Yeah, we should be highly critical of US spy agencies and apply a lot of scrutiny. But not everything they touch results in a landmine. They aren't all powerful gods. And they're up against some serious adversaries like China, Russia, and yes, Israel, and the most important one of them all... themselves! Spooks are spooks. They don't trust their neighbors, they don't trust themselves. And if they were omniscient, surely they'd know the very first rule of security: if there's a backdoor, somebody will find it at the least conveniently possible time.
  - conradev 1y ago
    > I really hate these conspiracies. Like come on. The Washington Post: In a statement, WikiLeaks indicated that the initial stockpile it put online was part of a broader collection of nearly 9,000 files that would be posted over time describing code developed in secret by the CIA to steal data from a range of targets. WikiLeaks said it redacted lists of CIA surveillance targets, though it said they included targets and machines in Latin America, Europe and the United States. https://archive.ph/QgK0a#:~:text=In%20a%20statement,the%20United%20States. https://archive.ph/QgK0a#:~:text=In%20a%20statement,the%20Un... and: The experience of O.S.B. engineers bore some resemblance to the Apple TV+ drama “Severance,” https://archive.ph/K59TS#:~:text=The%20experience%20of%20O.S.B.%20engineers%20bore%20some%20resemblance%20to%20the%20Apple%20TV+%20drama%20“Severance%2C” https://archive.ph/K59TS#:~:text=The%20experience%20of%20O.S...